The most awaited DCU movie ‘Shazam: Fury of Gods’ hit the theater on March 17 worldwide and it totally disappointed the audiences. The movie is recorded for the lowest opening weekends DCU has ever witnessed. While ‘Shazam‘ enjoyed a good box office collection, ‘Shazam 2‘ made an unimpressive onset. There are a lot of theories floating around about the reason behind ‘Shazam: Fury of God’s’ failure.
The Zachary Levi-starrer ‘Shazam: Fury of Gods’ hit the box office with an opening of only $30.5 million. Unlike the previous film, the sequel did not receive a good reception or review from the audience. Well, the failure of ‘Shazam 2‘ will paint a bad picture for James Gunn – the new CEO of DCU.
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Why Did ‘Shazam 2’ Fail?
‘Shazam 2‘ failure was a huge blowout for its director David F. Sandberg. He expected that the film will be critically appreciated just like the first part. He was surprised to receive such low scores from the same franchise that once received 90% from Rotten Tomatoes. Many factors contributed to Shazam 2 failure ranging from James Gunn to the audiences’ unexpected reactions. Sandberg has also hinted at the reason for Shazam 2 receiving not soo warm responses over its opening weekend. He said, “It’s not like this comes as a surprise. I saw where this was heading a long time ago. I’ll be alright though. I got paid all my money upfront.”
‘Shazam: Fury of God’ was delayed and postponed several times over the past year. It was originally set to release on April 1, 2022, but got delayed by the pandemic and finally released in March 2023. But the fans speculate the ulterior motives behind the delayed release. One of them was James Gunn taking over the franchise in November 2022 which initiated a complete reboot. This also included the unexpected exit of Henry Cavil from his patent role and also the line-up of new movies like ‘Superman: Legacy’ and ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’.
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Shazam’s Future In DCU Seems Turbulent
Honestly, with the change in Boss, everyone questioned DCU’s stability and authenticity. ‘Shazam’ director revealed the possibilities of Shazam’s future on social media saying, “What I’ve been told is that there’s nothing in the Shazam films that contradict the future plans for DC. So the possibility for more Shazam is there and if that’s what you want your best bet is to go see the film.” But ‘Shazam 2’ failed to impress its fans, and now chalking up the third movie for the franchise might be risky. Although the post-credit scenes of the sequel hinted at a third part. It opened possibilities for Billy Batson and his wizard family to join DCU.
James Gunn and the team have literally laid the future plans for DCU, but it’s yet to reveal whether Shazam will be a part of it. Moreover, David F. Sandberg is planning to take a temporary break from superhero movies ad get back to the horror genre. The ‘Lights Out‘ director also revealed that the toxic superhero fans are the reason for him backing out of it for time’s sake. However, Sandberg does not regret working on both the films – ‘Shazam’ and ‘Shazam: Fury of Gods’.
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